CHAPTER 82: THE NATURE OF ELEMENTS

Half a year before...

The knife, which had been thrown with enough force to shatter crystal, dissolved into a shower of pink rose petals just before it struck the woman’s chest.

The petals fluttered to the ground, their sweet fragrance a strange contrast to the cold, hard reality of the ruined city.

"How rude," a voice, smooth as silk yet laced with a playful reprimand, whispered directly behind his ear.

Rhys did not flinch. He slowly turned, his pitch-black eyes meeting a pair of pink, heart-shaped pupils.

His eyes widened as he recognised the face, "Yuki!"

[Analysis of the recent entity confirms she is a fragment of the same Celestial Spirit Fox as Yuki. Her core power revolves around the concept of Seduction, a form of high-level mind and emotional manipulation.]

"Yuki... Yuki..." the woman mused aloud, tucking a stray strand of her vivid pink hair behind an elegant fox-like ear. "So, this is what it feels like to have a name... ara ara!"

"PAAAPAAAA..." Sera rushed to him, followed by the Behemoth. She planted herself defiantly between Rhys and the newcomer, glaring with an intensity that belied her small frame.

"You coquettish bitch, stay away from a married man!"

"What?"

[...]

Seduction’s laugh was like the chime of tiny, crystal bells.

"Oh, my. Such vulgar language from one so small. It appears my foolish little sister left quite an impression on your... offspring."

Her gaze lingered on Sera, a complex mixture of amusement, curiosity, and a faint, almost imperceptible, twinge of jealousy dancing in her depths.

"Child, look at me. Don’t I resemble your mother?" she cooed, leaning forward ever so slightly.

Sera turned her face away with a huff. "You look like a cheap knock-off."

"A what?"

"Ahem." Rhys cleared his throat, commanding the attention of both females. "What do you want?"

"What do I want..." Seduction breathed, taking a slow, deliberate step towards him. The silk of her dark pink robes rustled with the movement. "Isn’t it obvious? What a wife wants, I want, of course."

Rhys’s expression remained unchanged, but internally, his mind was racing.

Wife? This was a new level of absurdity. Elder Solon had been a master manipulator, but this woman’s methods were in a different league entirely.

She did not use logic or fear; she used pure, overwhelming audacity.

"I am not married..."

"Then who is she?" Seduction pointed at Sera.

"She is not my daughter."

"Papa, are you going to abandon me?" Sera’s voice trembled, her eyes welling up with perfectly timed tears.

[...]

A throbbing headache began to build behind Rhys’s eyes. There were two primary reasons he had not resorted to further violence.

[You have already resorted to it, host. But failed...]

’Shut up.’

Firstly, she was a part of Yuki, and he felt a certain indebtedness. Without Yuki’s core, Sera might not have been born.

’I would have been born naturally anyway. That coquettish bitch acted on her own. Hmph.’

Rhys ignored Sera’s indignant mental commentary and considered the second reason. The prospect of having a Celestial Fox as a pet was an undeniably appealing one.

’I am not a pet, but a wife.’

’I am not marri—wait. How are you speaking in my mind?’

’Have you forgotten? We share an Equal Transfer Contract.’

Three pairs of eyes locked in a silent standoff. He understood the nature of an Equal Transfer Contract and knew precisely what Yuki—and by extension, this new fragment—desired from him.

’Lifespan...’

But there was a catch.

"What do I get in return?" Rhys crossed his arms. ’And please, spare me the tales of sacrifice. There must be something you possess that is of equal value to what I provide, correct?’

"W-what do you want?" Seduction’s voice was a breathy whisper as she glided closer, subtly lowering the neckline of her gown to reveal a tantalising glimpse of her cleavage. "Take... whatever you desire... husband."

Rhys placed a hand on her forehead and gently pushed her back.

[You are under the influence of lust...]

’In what universe do you think I’m influenced by lust?’

[The bulge in...]

’Shut up.’

"Alright, since you seem incapable of negotiating without resorting to your... impure traits, I will state precisely what I desire from you."

Seduction’s lips twitched, a faint smile playing on them as a bead of sweat traced a path down her neck and into the valley between her breasts.

"I want to learn about the true nature of elements and their properties."

Seduction was taken aback. The playful seductress vanished, replaced by a genuinely surprised woman.

"You have already bonded with every possible element. As for their properties, how can a stranger assist you with something that must be understood through personal enlightenment? I would much rather teach you about some... delightful positions of pleasure."

"Drop it." His gaze turned sharp and serious. "As per our Equal Transfer Contract, this is what I demand in return."

Rhys had his reasons. He had long suspected that the conventional understanding of elemental properties was incomplete.

A cultivator with a single dantian, upon choosing to bond with an element and selecting one of its properties, was locked into that choice.

However, with multiple dantians, he theorised it was possible to utilise the same element with different properties.

His attempts to house two properties within a single dantian had all failed spectacularly. Yet, Yuki had wielded at least two distinct properties of the same element.

Previously, without his own elemental bonds, he could not discern the specifics of her power. Now, looking at this fragment of her, he could clearly sense her base element: Water.

But how had she derived seduction and teleportation from it? She possessed no trace of the space element.

Seeing the unyielding seriousness in his eyes, Seduction’s playful demeanour wavered.

"Papa, just break the contract with this liar."

"I suppose if she is unable to fulfil her end of the bargain, we should sever our contract—"

"I agree!"

"Good."

And so, Rhys’s family grew by one, gaining a member who was not, in fact, deceased.

He spent another half-year within the Ashen Dimension, during which he learned a great deal from Seduction about the true nature of elements and their properties.

His lessons were an eye-opening revelation. The "properties" that cultivators believed they were selecting were, in fact, variations of the base element. In the immortal realms, these were known as mutated elements.

A cultivator could not typically wield more than one mutated element of the same type because their similar yet distinct structures caused them to repel each other.

However, it was not impossible.

By precisely mixing the mutated elements in specific ratios, or by combining mutated elements from different base elements, the repulsion could be negated.

Yuki’s power was a prime example. Her base element was Water, but her mutated elements were not derived solely from it.

She had fused a mutated element of Water with one from Time.

In essence, a cultivator could wield any number of properties, or mutated elements, as long as they could prevent the repulsion between them, either through precise ratios or by utilising different base elements.

Rhys could use Fire and Earth to create Magma, but attempting to combine the "burning" and "purification" properties of Fire within a single dantian would result in a violent repulsion, as they had entirely different outcomes.

However, if he controlled the ratio of each property according to his desired purpose, he could wield both without conflict.